Cyber Illusions: Sensory Ops, Book 6

by Nikki Duncan

  Moving on, he flipped through her bills and bank statements. She made as much doing one performance as he did in a year, which meant she could afford the best attorneys if they ended up in court. Not good news for him.

  He found an inventory of her belongings and their insured values, for both the house and the warehouse. There was no mention of artwork at the warehouse, and though he had no clue how much her props were worth he didn’t think the coverage for them was out of line.

  In fact, nothing seemed out of line for the life she led. She looked as clean on paper as she seemed to be in person. Closing the drawer, he leaned back in her chair and thought through everything he knew.

  Even the lease she held on a plane made sense. It had to be easier to haul her own stuff in her own plane than to trust airport staffs or freight companies every time. Then again, with her own plane, she could fly in and out of smaller airports and avoid some of the tighter security restrictions.

  Damn it.

  This was one case he couldn’t write an algorithm for, and he wasn’t sure he trusted himself to be impartial.

  He liked Taryn, was attracted to her on a level that threatened his professionalism. Most importantly, he loved his kids and would do anything to keep them happy. Even if that meant crossing the line to help her stay out of prison.

  Chapter Seven

  Exhausted and craving her bed, Taryn stumbled across the threshold of home at four thirty in the morning and closed the front door harder than she intended. After their performance, she’d been invited to an after-party she hadn’t felt like she could decline. The festivities were so hardcore they’d have worn Jenny out, and she was a party pro.

  When she’d finally made it to the plane, she’d been unable to sleep until halfway home, which meant that, minus a thirty-minute nap, she’d been awake thirty-two hours.

  Autopilot had her coding in to deactivate the alarm and then reactivating it after locking the door. Bracing herself against the wall, she headed toward her room, mumbling, “I’m too old for this.”

  “Thinking it’s time to go clean?” a quiet male voice asked from her side.

  She screamed and covered her chest and spun in one simultaneous move. Tyler leaned against the frame of his bedroom door, watching her.

  “What is wrong with you,” she whispered. “You scared me half to death.”

  “Damn, I wasn’t at all startled by your unexpected entry at this time of morning. Why didn’t you tell me you were getting back so early?”

  “I don’t have to answer to you.”

  “You sound like a petulant child.”

  Dressed in only a pair of snug boxers that showed off an impressive bulge, tight abs and powerful-looking legs, he made her mouth water with thoughts of pressing up against him. “You’re not dressed.”

  Leaning against the wall, with her eyelids drooping so she watched him through little more than slats, she chuckled. While absolutely not her scene, she’d overheard some funny stuff at that party. They would be ripping strips off Tyler’s uptight ass with their jokes if he’d been there.

  “Do you like meat, Tyler?”

  “Yes. What’s that have to do with anything?”

  “You like velvet?”

  “It’s soft I guess. How much did you drink?”

  “Why don’t you sit and spin on a velvet-covered meat sword? Maybe it’ll loosen you up.” She laughed at her own joke, too tired and punchy to care how bad it was.

  “Yes, you’re funny. You and Ava could be best pals.” He stepped forward, and a tattoo peeked at her from just below the waistband of his boxers.

  Smiling, she reached out and tugged the waist down a few inches. He jerked back and pulled his shorts back up, but not before she saw R2D2. More laughter bubbled up. “You have R2D2 in your pants.”

  That just made her giggle more. Tyler rolled his eyes and moved toward her, this time grabbing her hands before she could reach for him. “You’ve got to be drunk.”

  “Nope.”

  He sniffed her hair. “Did you smoke something? You smell like pot.”

  “Nope. Doesn’t mean someone else didn’t, though.” She’d turned down quite a few drug offers at the party, which was another reason it wasn’t her scene.

  “Come on. Let’s get you in bed.”

  He turned her toward her room, but the house tilted beneath her. She reached out to the wall for balance, but found his hard chest instead. Warm and smooth with the tiniest sprinkling of hair she rubbed him. “I think you’re the velvet-covered meat sword.”

  “Taryn.”

  The world spun. He swept her into his arms before she fell. Resting her head on his shoulder, she sighed into the darkness. He felt so wonderful.

  Next thing Taryn knew, she was waking up in her own bed. Her shoes and jeans had been removed and she’d been tucked in under the covers. The blackout curtains had been pulled closed over her windows.

  Tyler. He’d been there and carried her to bed.

  Heat flamed across her cheeks with the memory. She’d been rubbing against him and practically purring with want. She’d tried to pull him in when he reached for her pants, but he’d resisted. His words didn’t register, but she had a vague memory of him leaning over and brushing her hair back after he pulled her comforter up.

  He’d undressed her and tucked her in like she was a toddler and she’d been too tired to argue. If she was honest with herself, she’d enjoyed his attention. And wanted more.

  Dragging herself from the bed, she looked at the clock and winced. It was after noon. While the sleep had been needed, she also needed to get things done. And they had to take Tyler to the airport. If this was what it was like to entertain the world’s most elite, she would have to downgrade her goals. At least she’d have a good story to tell.

  After a shower and getting dressed in shorts and a tank top, with her hair hanging loose to air dry, she went to find the kids. She found them at the other end of the house in the media room. As expected, the kids chose the giant, foam-filled beanbags instead of the theater seats. A little unexpected, they were on the same one with Tyler between them.

  Ryder and Sidney both had their heads resting on his chest with their hands tucked under their chins. Tyler’s arms were around their shoulders hugging them close while the Avengers fought aliens in New York.

  The guilt she’d felt over leaving Ryder, the worry that he’d start having nightmares again, slipped away. For the first time in ten years Taryn was jealous. Of the kids. She wanted to settle in beside Tyler, to rest her head on his chest and know that everything would be okay.

  She wanted to fit into the mix with them. Now. Forever. Finding a way to blend their lives was the only way she and Tyler could both win.

  Slipping back out of the room, she went to find her camera. She’d wanted them to know him, to form a connection, and it seemed the weekend without her in the middle had helped it happen.

  When she returned, they hadn’t moved. Changing the setting for low light, she framed the picture and pressed the button. In the seconds it took for the flash to go off and the three of them to turn, she’d gotten several shots courtesy of the SLR.

  “Taryn.” Sidney grabbed the beanbag from beside her and pulled it closer. “We’re having an Avenger-thon. Come watch with us.”

  “Tyler has a flight.”

  “I changed it.” He paused the movie and looked at her. The dark made it hard to read his eyes, which was probably a good thing. “I thought I’d stay a little longer. Ryder and I are still tweaking the firewall and Sidney has a talent show this week.”

  Setting the camera on the snack bar at the back of the room, she moved toward them. “Then how can I resist? Are you watching in order?”

  “You can’t,” Sidney stated simply. “And no.”

  When Taryn went to settle on the bag Sidney pulled over, Sidney pushed it closer to the other one and dropped down near the outer edge, leaving Taryn little choice but to settle in beside Tyler. She’d just been thin
king how nice that would be, but she hadn’t expected it to be realized.

  One look into Sidney’s eyes and Taryn knew her girl was scheming. Taryn shook her head lightly but Sidney only smiled.

  “Join us.” Tyler, obviously hip to her reason for delaying, rested his head against the bag and met her gaze. “They’re as smooth as velvet.”

  Thankful the dim lighting would hide the humiliation heating her skin, she lowered onto the bag, making sure to keep some space between her and Tyler. Flipping her hair over the back of the bag, she got comfortable between him and Sidney. As comfortable as she could be with last night filling the inches between them.

  “Which movie are you watching next?” she asked.

  “Captain America,” Ryder said.

  “You been in here all morning?”

  “Pretty much.” Tyler’s arm brushed hers as he lifted the remote to press play.

  The touch was nothing, but sparks shot across her skin. Telling herself she was still tired and that she’d have a stronger resistance when she was more rested, she forced her eyes to the screen.

  The Avengers and their individual movies topped her list of favorites. She could always relax and enjoy herself when she watched one, yet, next to Tyler, with his warmth seeping through the foam and into her, with Sidney and Ryder on either side of them, leaning in and pressing them closer, she couldn’t settle.

  Every breath brushed her arm against his, reminding her how smooth his chest had been beneath her fingers. How strong he’d been while carrying her to bed.

  When the movie ended, Ryder and Sidney jumped up. “Bathroom and snack break. We’ll change the DVD when we get back,” Ryder announced as they disappeared from the room.

  With the credits rolling, the room was almost completely dark. The music’s beat slid through her, pounding in time with her heart.

  “Sleep well?” Tyler asked.

  “I think I was near death. Is that still called sleep?”

  “It’s what I call it.” He smiled. “How much had you had to drink?”

  “Nothing. I just hadn’t slept in over thirty hours, and I don’t function well without sleep.”

  “Why didn’t you sleep while you were gone?”

  They spoke quietly like they were in a real theater. He brushed a hair off her forehead, just as he had when he’d tucked her in. She could convince herself, in the simplicity of the moment, that he really cared about her. Doing so would set her up for disappointment, so she pushed the idea aside.

  “We got there and had to get everything unloaded and moved to the venue. It wasn’t set up for a show, so we worked all night with the planners and staff to figure out a setup that would work for everyone. Then we had to do a run through and get everything moved off the makeshift stage until it was time to use them. Food and makeup, networking and then an after-party that nearly killed me. It was a long day and a half.”

  “And here I thought you just showed up looking sexy in your short shorts and disappeared again when the show ended.”

  She laughed. “Hardly. The only person who gets more hours in during a show than me is Davio and that’s just because he insists on packing and unpacking the props himself.”

  “You like Davio.”

  “I’m not sure how I got by without him.” She was relaxing as she studied his face. “Looks like things went well here.”

  “We had a good weekend. I even got Ryder off the computer and into the pool.”

  “No way.”

  “Way.”

  “What did you do? Pick him up and throw him in?”

  “Pretty much.” His grin charmed a chuckle out of her.

  “He always complains when I do that.”

  “There was complaining, but after swimming I had him try to hack my firewall again.”

  “I got the popcorn. You can carry the drinks,” Ryder called from the hall.

  The rest of the day was spent in the beanbags. They ordered pizza for dinner and finished the last Thor movie just in time to get the kids in bed. Tyler tucked Ryder in while Taryn tucked Sidney in and then they switched, taking their turn with the other. It all seemed as natural as if they’d done the routine for years. Like maybe they could all coexist.

  Tyler pulled a beer from the fridge while Taryn poured herself a glass of wine. In silent agreement, they stepped onto the patio.

  “Today was a good day,” he said, sitting on the small couch beside her.

  “Yeah. They’re going to be sad when you leave.”

  “They make me want to stay.”

  “There are criminals to chase in California,” she suggested.

  “There are magic shows to perform in Florida,” he rebutted instead of bringing up the subject of his job. Whatever she may or may not have done in San Francisco could wait until tomorrow.

  “Their school’s here.”

  “We have schools, beaches and pools in Florida.”

  “Are you unable or unwilling to transfer, Tyler?”

  He considered the question, not for the first time, thinking about what was keeping him in Miami. The simple answer was that he could move for the sake of the kids, but after this weekend he wasn’t sure that was what the kids expected.

  “I could put in for a transfer, but it would mean leaving my team a man short and there may not be a tech position here. Plus there’s my family.”

  “Billions of families are scattered across the world. It’s not hard to fly back and forth to visit.”

  “Especially when you have your own plane on lease.”

  She cocked her head and dared him with that breathtaking stare of hers. “How do you know I lease my plane?”

  So much for not mentioning the investigation. “You are under investigation by the FBI.”

  “Did you learn about it through legal avenues, or did you go through my stuff while I was gone?”

  “I looked through your files.”

  “You ass.” She surged to her feet, slopping wine over the edge of her glass. “If you think, for half a second, you can use anything you found in my files against me, you’re dead wrong. They weren’t out in the open and your curiosity for the sake of taking the kids is not just cause.”

  Calmly, he set his beer on the table beside him. Taking her hand in his, he tugged her back down. “There was another theft while you were gone.”

  “What? Where?”

  “San Francisco. According to Ava—” who’d called him several times with updates, “—a guest at a high-profile party was the mark.”

  “So there could only be one high-profile party in all of San Francisco, which makes me automatically guilty and gives you just cause to search my house?”

  “Taryn, does it occur to you at all that I might actually want you to be innocent? That I’d rather not see the kids’ opinion of you change?”

  “Tyler, does it occur to you at all that I have no reason to believe you when I can’t even trust you to keep your nose out of my stuff?”

  “You said make myself at home.”

  “That doesn’t mean digging in drawers.”

  “Do you have something to hide?”

  “No. That’s not the point.”

  “Fine. Then prove it.”

  “How? You want to come with me on every job I have? You want to shadow me twenty-four seven until another theft happens and you can tell yourself it couldn’t be me because you’re my alibi?”

  “I could see some benefit to that.” If he could say without a doubt she wasn’t guilty, then the evidence would lose credibility. Circumstantial or not, he wanted the evidence against her to go away.

  “Well, you’re going to have to wait.” She drank the rest of the wine in one gulp. “I don’t have another performance scheduled until the middle of summer. I’ll be here working and with the kids until then.”

  “Taryn, I watched one of your performances online. You did an act with coins.”

  “So? It’s a basic trick to get the audience warmed up.”

  He pull
ed his phone out and pulled up the picture Ava had sent him. “Is this one of your coins?”

  She set her empty glass on a table and took his phone. Looking at the picture, her forehead scrunched into a frown. “Yes. Why?”

  “It was recovered from the scene in San Francisco.”

  “Surely you realize I’m not the only person with access to those.” Surging to her feet again, she began pacing. “I use several in every show. That’s not a sword dripping with DNA.”

  “You were there, the theft happened before your show and this was left behind. Look at this from our side.”

  Throwing his phone in his lap, she towered over him. “You want an accounting of my every minute since I stepped off the plane in San Francisco? Fine. You want a list of people who can corroborate my whereabouts at every turn? Fine. I’ll have my attorney get them to you. You want to search my house again? Get a warrant.”

  Her hair fanned wide behind her as she spun on the ball of her right foot and headed inside. She’d made perfectly valid points, but so had he. He was looking at the evidence other people collected, so it wasn’t like he was planting shit to make her look guilty.

  He’d told her he didn’t lie, and he’d proven it by admitting to looking through her files. Yeah, so she had a right to be pissed about that, but couldn’t she see he was trying to prove her innocence?

  “Damn it.” She wouldn’t consider the possibility that his goal was not to see her as a villain.

  Chapter Eight

  Taryn was taking her car keys off the hook in the kitchen when Tyler walked in. Still mad about the night before, she only glared and grabbed her purse from the table.

  “You still not talking to me?”

  “Just minimizing risks.” She moved toward the door and sidestepped to pass him.

  He stepped with her, blocking her. “I’m sorry you’re mad, but we have to look at every angle of an investigation. We’re talking millions of dollars in artwork, Taryn. The owners deserve answers.”

  “Enjoy your angles.” She moved past him and headed to the front of the house. “I have a meeting with my attorney. Then I’m going to work. I’m sure you have the addresses.”